Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Mugged: Ethiopian [Old Soul]

While a lot of people seem to appreciate pairing coffee with chocolate or similar sweets, there exists a lot more flavors that go wonderfully with coffee. One of my favorites happens to be fruits, a recently popular but wonderful companion to a bright coffee like a quality Ethiopian.
Often extolled for their lovely acidity, Ethiopian and other East African coffees rank as some of my favorite coffee. One recent addition to my list of quality African coffees was Old Soul's Ethiopian. From the Aleta Wondo Co-op, this coffee I had the pleasure of sampling in the brews of drip, siphon and french press.

The drip coffee relayed bright blueberry, chocolate, oak barrel, a bit of mint, nuts, dandelion greens and cracker. The body was light to medium and it had a nice, crisp taste to it.
The french press had similar power in the blueberry and mint, but this brew had more of a nougat-like taste along with cilantro and a hint of yerba matte.
The siphon was the sweetest of the three, holding strong blueberry, chocolate and mint along with oak barrel, buttery cracker and dandelion green all amidst a medium body. Overall, Old Soul's Ethiopian proved delicious and would do well to compliment a nice berry tart or chocolate covered strawberry. Give this coffee a try if you're looking for a smooth, bright coffee.

note: coffee was provided free of charge and the above review is objective feedback.

4 comments:

Hello BillI'm running fast now (now the month in which Muslims were fasting, called Ramadhan in the Islamic calendar). With a little timing, I can still enjoying coffee. In this blessed month, I would like to thank you because it have broaden my insights about coffee. Regards.

Romantic in history. It starts in the Horn of Africa, in Ethiopia, where the coffee tree probably originated in the province of Kaffa. There are various fanciful but unlikely stories surrounding the discovery of the properties of roasted coffee beans. One story has it that an Ethiopian goatherd was amazed at the lively behaviour of his goats after chewing red coffee berries. What we know with more certainty is that the succulent outer cherry flesh was eaten by slaves taken from present day Sudan into Yemen and Arabia, through the great port of its day, Mocha, now synonymous with coffee. Coffee was certainly being cultivated in Yemen by the 15th century and probably much earlier than that.